Former Microsoft exec’s $625 cookbook delayed

The former chief technology officer at Microsoft is now a renown culinary expert, and he has a much-anticipated cookbook due to debut soon. But the release of “Modernist Cuisine,” sold in six volumes, has been delayed until March while it is proofread and packaged.

You have to understand, proofreading becomes a bit more time consuming when you’re editing 2,400 pages that retail for $625.

Myhrvold has earned a name for himself as culinary scientist of sorts. He combines science experiments with cooking in his Bellevue lab, reveling in the physics of food.

“The biggest concern with the delay is that we will miss the 2010 holiday season, which is a traditional time to give gifts. Of course, the rejoinder is that the holidays come every year, so rather than being just in time for 2010, we will be quite early for 2011. Nevertheless, I personally apologize to everybody who had their heart set on giving the gift of Modernist Cuisine this holiday season.”

The New York Times reports the delay has gastronomes heaving a “collective sigh.”

Myhrvold quit Microsoft in 1999 to start Intellectual Ventures. He has Ph.D.s in mathematical economics and theoretical physics from Princeton University, and his postdoctorate work included studying quantum theories of gravity with Stephen Hawking at Cambridge University.

For more on what Myhrvold’s lab looks like, read this Los Angeles Times story or this post from Seattle Food Geek.

If you still want to know more, check out this talk Myhrvold gave at the University of Washington last year.